All American Soap Box Derby

as you can guess by my screen name Im into soap box derby racing

July 21 2012 marks the 75 th running of the american classic race

some of you may ask ... how is this traditional>?

for 422 kids this year this is their ...
bonneville and search for speed

the cars basic shape has not changed in over 50 years

my own daughters 2010 michigan champion car resembles
SoCals Belly Tank

The Derby has had its share of ups and downs through the years

the worst was chevrolet pulling out after the magnet car in 1973
or the mis-guided partnership with nascar

its newest champion is television actor /director Corbin Berson
who herd of its near bankruptcy in 2010 helped the sport by filming a movie
about it and getting (geico) on board as a sponsor to help save the race
http://www.25hill.com/

I have seen a ton of you on here talk about your own derby car and how it started you in this hobby we love

check out the action on Akron next week your kids will love it

jim

 

I field ten cars in the annual Staten Island Soap Box Derby race in October.Some of them are painted up to represent old stock cars from Weissglass Stadium . I hope to have more cars in the race this year. My grand childen drive some of them, my friends kids drive some of them,my tenants kids drive some of them. They are state of the art. After the trophy presentations,which we take most of them, we go back to my VFW post and have hot dog party for the kids. All the kids and parents wear my t-shirts. Great day for everybody. You can see pictures on ...post7172.com. .................www.weissglassspeedway.com

 

Cool stuff - everybody says to start 'em young getting an interest in cars.

 

never had one grownin up, wanted to, didn't have the chance, had to get good
grades at school then go to work diggin irigation ditches.

 

My dad was a Soap Box Derby director here in Hickory N.C. for 7 or so years. Its all gone now. This was in in the early seventies. Lots of great memories. We went to Akron every year with the winner in the back of the station wagon. I raced a couple of years. My dad had help starting it with the Drew Hearne of Charlotte N.C. They had a track in Charlotte modeled after the akron track, a purpose built track. I think it still goes on in Charlotte. Yes its traditional to get your kids started early on Building Something, and a soap box derby car is a good start. I learned my basic skills I have today from that expeirence. Thats where I learned to lay up fiberglass and paint with a spray gun. Builds confidence!

 

My buddy and his son are packing up and heading to Akron to compete in the super stock class

 

winston salem has ( monster mountain ) richard childress helps fund the track operations they hold a fantastic race there every thanksgiving cars come from all over the country thought i would get the travel trophy
coming from michigan (wrong) had familys there from Iowa,new york,& boston

 

they are going to have the time of their lives ~!!!!

my daughter and I went in 2010 as michigans champ in super

 

Race week website is up including the live cam link please check back daily
http://aaraceweek.com/

 

75th anniversary. It will be a big show.

This is his 4th trip. 2009 Stock Champ, 2010 Super Stock Champ, 2011 Masters Champ and 2012 Super Stock Local Winner.

This will be his last hurrah. He's to tall too fit in the cars anymore...

 

my daughter has a simular problem she is a swimmer and her shoulders got too big

 

Thought you might like to see some pictures of my car - I won the 'Best Constructed Car in the World' in 1976 - that was the start of my working on cars with my dad!

 

I love old stick cars

 

Is there a list of cities that host the soap box derby's? HRP

 

huntersville and morgantown both hold races

yes here is the link

http://www.tampabaysoapboxderby.com/AASBD/www/map/index.cfm



a very good friend of ours daughter won cleveland's race check out her ride to the parade today

 

I built 3 cars for the derby back in the mid 60's. I still have a couple of shirts and helmets

 

I built and ran a car in San Francisco in 1955. in 1987 I moved to South Florida,
I read in the paper that the Soap Box race was going to be on a certain date, and
I Thought "WHERE". Turns out that they held it on a bridge that goes over the Intercoastal Waterway. The only other hills are the Landfills (Garbage)

 

Says there are 2 in South Carolina but no information. HRP

 

yea i dont know whats going on there but if you call the derby office next week they can give ya info

 

I built 3 different cars back in the 1950's. Won the local races twice and went to the bigger races in Los Angeles and always lost in L A. I can say I learned a lot by building my own cars. There are lots of good times I will never forget.==TV

 

ok boys and girls a little derby history why was yestersdays derby parade filled with corvettes??

General Motors Media Press Release

FOR RELEASE: October 5, 1998
CONTACT: Chevrolet Communications
Phone: 1-800-CHEVY-MI 0r 810-492-8841
Fax: (810) 492-8853
Myron Scott -- photographer who named Corvette

DETROIT — Myron E. Scott, a newspaper photographer who created the Chevrolet-sponsored All-American Soap Box Derby and later named its equally All-American sports car -- the Corvette -- died at his home on Sunday, September 4 in Kettering (outside Dayton) Ohio. He was 91.
Services will be at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, October 7 at the Tobias Funeral Home in Kettering. Entombment will be in David's Mausoleum in Kettering. (Phone of funeral home is 937-252-3122.) Surviving is his wife of 68 years, Clara Jane. (They had no children.)
"Myron Scott made a tremendous contribution to the image of Chevrolet for three decades," said John G. Middlebrook, Chevrolet general manager and a General Motors vice president. "Myron's talent and creativity will long live in the Corvettes he named, and the excitement of tens of thousands of young competitors in the Soap Box Derby, which he originated."
Born in Camden, Ohio, Scott graduated from high school in Dayton and attended the Dayton Institute of Art. He was first an artist and then a staff photographer for the Dayton Daily News. To fill a Sunday feature page in 1933, he noticed two boys with rough, soap box-type cars a few blocks apart. He told them to get friends and he'd do a photo layout of a race. From this he got the idea for the Soap Box Derby.
There was great interest and later that year the newspaper ran a race that attracted 40,000 people to watch 300 young boys coast down Burkart Hill.
In 1934, the paper again sponsored the race in Dayton. In 1935 Chevrolet assumed sponsorship, and the race moved to Akron with 32 cities entering. Scott joined Chevrolet in Detroit as assistant advertising manager to run the All-American Soap Box Derby, which became one of the nation's greatest amateur racing events. Chevrolet sponsored the Derby until 1972.
In 1953, Chevrolet introduced an all-new fiberglass sports car, and there was much indecision about a name. Many hundreds were rejected. Scott submitted "Corvette" because he said "it began with a `C'...rolled well off the tongue...and reflected the excitement of a fast World War II war ship named Corvette."
While he was honored by Corvette owners for many decades, Scott downplayed his role in the car's success. "The name didn't sell the car," he said. "It was the designer's efforts. I was just another team player trying to do a job."
In 1955 Scott moved to the newly-formed Chevrolet Public Relations department as assistant director, responsible for photography of new cars, plus design of press kits, graphics and special events. He retired from Chevrolet in 1971.

 

so ALL KIDS get a chance to have the thrill of the hill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ylFLXgagqg8#!


http://www.nationalsuperkids.org/

 

I know you are about tired of me being on my (soapbox)

the derby is also barrier free with hand controls for kids that cant use their legs
here is a picture of a young man my daughter and I made friends with when we were rally racing

meet Justin from Des Moines Iowa he has Cerebrel Palsy and he has the heart of a champion
and is one of the top racers in the country and has finnished in the top ten in national rally points the last 10 years
If you wanna start a fight tell him he cant do it !
HE WILL PROOVE YOU WRONG !!!

 

I recently got this car out of a shed, it looks as this kid had wide shoulders too,

 

The blisters are a result of reusing a car for a bigger kid or the kid growing from one year to the next. Of course, it could also be the result of a design mistake. That car looks have been built somewhere between 79-83. Earlier cars would have the axles encased.

 

I see Im not the only one here that loves these things!!!!!

 

looks like att gets it ....
check this out loved watching and seeing a bunch of people I know ( this is my bonneville)

http://uverseonline.att.net/play/tv/show/u-verse-exclusive/p/video/dk___dk_exc_spt901_sep12.mp4

 

In Dallas they ran over on the southwest side of town on Kiest and what is now spur 408 - it's right next to our DFW armed forces cemetary - the lane markings showed for many years....and I think the "hooks" are still there....I'll make a point to get out there a snap a pic....we rode our bicycles out there many a time....

 

My old car. Laminated redwood body, lift off top, bubbles on the side for my big butt. Got best brake, lost to the winner on my first heat! Had surgical rubber on my axle holes. We had some innovative things done on it. My dad was director for Hickory N.C. Good times!

 

We never had anything like this in Australia, the closest we ever got would be at the Mountain Districts Rod Club annual picnic they would have a 'billy cart derby', very strict rules for it too! You had to be able to get to the bottom of the hill, alive, with your billy cart, however as long as it and you both crossed the line it could be riding you.

Ah what fun memories!!

Doc.